HV 8352 

.06 
1878 



8 


v * * 


\> X/ FIRST ANNUAL REPORT 




OF THE 


STATE AGENT FOE DISCHAEGED CONVICTS, 


FOR THE 


Year ending December 31, 1878. 


*** 


TRANSMITTED TO THE LEGISLATURE JANUARY 30, 1879. 


1 

ii L Z & x\ i • 





/ 



nA 



STATE OF NEW YORK. 



No. 43 



IN ASSEMBLY, 

January 30, 1879 



FIRST ANNUAL REPORT 



OP THE STATE AGENT FOR DISCHARGED CONVICTS. 



Office of Superintendent of State Prisons, ) 
Albany, N. Y. January 29, 1879. / 

To the Legislature: 

I have the honor to transmit herewith the report of the State Agent 
for Discharged Convicts, for the year ending December 31, 1878. I was 
unable to include it in my annual report, not having received it from the 
State Agent until the 28th inst. 

Very respectfully, 

LOUIS D. PILSBURY, 

Superintendent of State Prisons. 



REPORT. 



Office of State Agent for Discharged Convicts,) 
Auburn. January 13, 1879. j 

To Hon. Louis D. Pilsbury, 

Superintendent of Prisons. 

Sir — The report of the State Agent for Discharged Convicts, as re- 
quired by chapter 424, Laws of 1877, is now respectfully submitted. 
It is the first annual report of this service, and relates to the experience 
of the Agency in the year ending December 31, 1878, and comprises the 
records of the last three months of 1877. 

The records of expenditures for the fiscal year ending September 30, 
1878, correspond with the State Comptroller's account and vouchers of 
this service for that period. They show that, including all the accounts 
pertaining to the year, the disbursements to discharged prisoners amount 
to §2,541.74; salary of State Agent §2,500.00. Total expenditures 
§5,041.74. 

The act creating this Agency provided that "the sum heretofore ap- 
propriated for maintaining the system of guidance, employment and aid 
for discharged prisoners, for the present year," be available for its main- 
tenance. 

By the second section of the act, defining the duties of the Agency, 
the supplying of transportation, food and clothing, is required of the 
agent, but as the total expenditure for these and all other kinds of aid 
to discharged prisoners " shall not exceed §5,000 over and above the 
amount already provided by law, for any one year," that act has par- 
ticularly reaffirmed the provisions of the previous laws concerning the 
clothing, transportation and money to be supplied by the State to pris- 
oners upon their release. Hence, the services of this Agency have thus 
far been supplementary, only, in regard to the required provision for 
these first wants of the convicts upon their release. The previously ex- 
isting laws already made reasonable provisions for the clothing and 
transportation of persons discharged from prison ; therefore, the expen- 
ditures for these two purposes have been limited to the cases of urgent 
need. 

Organization of the Agency. 

The detailed account of official acts by the agent requires a brief 
statement of the plan and methods of the service. 

The law places the central office of the Agency at some one prison in 
order to avoid the evils which would inevitably result from any methods 
of aid which would tend to induce released convicts to seek for aid, etc., 
in any city or other central place. The congregating of ex-convicts was 
to be avoided. The siletit dispersion of these unfortunate persons 
separately and to the most suitable places and best homes and employ- 
ments that can be found for them is very important for their own wel- 



4 [Assembly, 

fare and for that of the communities to which they go. Therefore the 
aid offered, the friendly counsel given, the investigation of personal 
wants and the decision on all questions upon which useful aid and 
guidance should depend, are, by the plan of this agency organization 
made the subject of deliberation within each prison and are decided 
upon, as far as practicable, before the day of release of the prisoner.* 

* A brief note in this place is due to the history of this effort, to give systematic attention to 
the leal interests of convicts on their release from prison in the State of New York. Under the 
prison system, as it was prior to 1847, the spirited efforts for the amelioration of the woes of 
lriendless and penitent prisoners, led to the organization of the Prison Association of ."New 
York, in 1844, under the leadership of Judge Edmonds, who was then President of the State 
Prison Inspectors, and Messrs. Frelinghuysen, Judges McCoun and Duer, and Professor William 
(Jhanning Russell, and others. To encourage and aid men in their eflorts to reform, was one of 
the three objects of the association. It was then, as now, proposed to prevent the pauperizing 
and enleebling effects which mere doleing and sentimental sympathy tend to induce. The 
association has continued its efforts in this matter, and by mean* of a system of organized aux- 
iliary committees, as provided for in its charter, it has prepared a basis for the present State 
Agency for Discharged Prisoners. 

General Amos Pilsbury repeatedly, in his reports as well as in his official and personal rela- 
tions, as the highest of authorities in matters relating to prisons and criminals, urged with great 
emphasis, the public and humane considerations for a judicious and helpful concern for the 
welfare and assistance of discharged convicts. In his annual report of 1870, that revered prison 
master said : "After an experience and observation extended over more than forty-five years in 
prison official life, of which twenty live have been spent in superintendence ot the Albany Pen- 
itentiary, I feel it a duty to put on record my sincere belief that the best possible mode of pro- 
tecting the public against the relapse of discharged convicts into crime, is to furnish them with 
immediate employment, or aid them until they can become established in some respectable 
business." 

In 1872, the Prison Association Avas enabled, in accordance with the following minute in the 
proceedings of the State Prison Board, to organize its system of service in the interest of con- 
victs on their release, more effectually than ever before : 

"Resolved, That the agents and wardens of the several prisons furnish, or cause to be fur- 
nished, to such person or persons as may be designated for that purpose at the several prisons 
by the New York Prison Association in each month, the names, trades and occupation of all 
convicts who are to be dischaiged lor the ensuing month; and they are further instructed to 
permit the person or persons thus designated to have interviews and unobstructed intercourse 
with convicts who are about to be discharged, for the laudable object ol advising such convicts, 
ascertaining their future intentions, and procuring for them useful employment on their dis- 
charge from prison, not in any manner interfering with the discipline of the prison ; such 
interviews to take place at such hours as may be determined by the agent or warden of the 
prison where such convict maybe imprisoned, and the agents and wardens will aid them in 
advising the convicts to accept the offers of employment thus held out to the liberated convict, 
and to avoid evil associates ; and that the agents of the association shall have access to the 
records in the clerk's and chaplain's offices, in order to properly determine the capacity, social 
circumstances and character of the convicts." 

Dated at General Meeting of Inspectors of State Prisons, Auburn, July 9, 1872. 

With the methods of an agency thus prevised and brought into suitable relations with the 
State authorities, the association cordially united in the recommendation which was made by 
the commissioners of investigation of the State prisons, in 1876, who, in concluding their report 
to the Legislature of 1877, stated "that the commission feels authorized to recommend the pas- 
sage of a law appointing a State Agent to look after the interests of discharged convicts." After 
due deliberation, and with your co-operation, sir, as Superintendent of Slate Prisons, in the 
spring of 1877, the act, a copy of which is here annexed, became a law : 

AN ACT in relation to the appointment of a State agent for the guidance and employment of 

discharged convicts. 

Passed June 6, 1877 ; three-fifths being present. 
The People of the State of Neio York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follotvsi 

Section 1. The Superintendent of Prisons is hereby authorized and empowered to appoint 
a State agent for discharged convicts, who shall hold office during the pleasure of the said 
superintendent, whose duty it shall be to visit, from time to time, the various penal institutions 
and reformatories of the State, and at least once in each month at each df the State Prisons, to 
confer with all convicts whose term of imprisonment is soon to expire, for the purpose of induc- 
ing them to proceed immediately from the place of their confinement to suitable homes and 
places where employment will be secured to them. The said agent shall seek access to employ- 
ers of labor adapted to such discharged convicts, so that they can, upon their liberation, be at 
once directed to suitable employment on the introduction and request of the said agent. 

§ 2. The said agent shall furnish the convicts discharged from prisons and reformatories with 
transportation, food, clothing, and any necessary tools and advice, so that they may enter upon 
employment. 

§ 3. The office of said agent shall be located at some one of the State prisons of this State, to 
be designated by the Superintendent of State Prisons. 

§ 4. The said agent shall keep an account of all the moneys expended by him, pursuant to 
regulations approved by the Superintendent of State Prisons, for his correspondence and neces- 
sary traveling and incidental expenses, and in furnishing clothing, board, transportation and 
tools to discharged prisoners, and such account, showing the amount under each head for each 
person, duly approved by the Superintendent of State Prisons, together with the proper vouch- 
ers, shall be transmitted' to the Comptroller of the b>tate each month, and, upon its approval by 
him, a warrant shall be drawn upon the State treasury thereior \ but the whole amount so paid 
for such expenditures shall not exceed five thousand dollars over and above the amount already 



No. 43.] 5 

This plan is no longer an experiment, for, after agreeing with the 
State Prison authorities in reference to certain necessary facilities to 
favor it in 1872, it was found practicable to confer with needy men as readily 
in prison, before their release, as when out of prison and unconscious of 
restraint. But, until the centralized government of the prisons under 
your administration was secured, this field of duty, and any plan for it, 
promised only uncertain results, so generally does the animus and ex- 
ample of prison keepers and other officials in their intercourse with con- 
victs, affect the mental condition and moral feelings of their prisoners. 
Yet, from the beginning of this plan, and without a special law, the effort 
was made to secure a basis for prudent discrimination in regard to pris- 
oners who should be counseled and helped, and especially in regard to 
guiding and aiding all such convicts to the employments and homes 
adapted to their condition and welfare. 

Local Helpers. — The cordial assent of numerous good citizens in every 
county in the State was obtained, in a scheme of local committees, to ob- 
serve and take some practical interest in regard to the condition and 
interests of persons who have fallen into crime. These local committees, 
now upward of 60 in number, having become accustomed to the duty of 
faithful dealing with the offending classes and of charitable and pru- 
dent treatment of those who strive to amend their lives, are now found 
to be our true and competent advisers and helpers for the benefit of re- 
leased prisoners. These committee organizations have been maintained 
for several years. They not only aided very powerfully in securing the 
constitutional amendment to found a reformed prison government, but 
have now become the most practical aud efficient helpers of the agency 
for discharged prisoners. They are not only in communication with this 
agency, but with each other throughout the State by means of printed 
lists, etc. Many of the business men among their members are the 
best employers and advisers of reformed criminals. 

Employers. — The number of good employers of labor who, as friends 
and supporters of this plan of assistance to worthy ex-convicts, will 
offer employment whenever they can, exceeded 300, previous to the 
recent depression in the labor market ; and, at any time it is found 
to be much more a question of competence and hearty willingness on 
the part of needy persons of this class, as workmen, than a matter of 
willingness and generous desire on the part of employers to encourage 
and assist such men. It is the misfortune and very essential element 

provided for by law lor any one year. And any clothing-, money and transportation furnished 
to each discharged convict as provided in chapter lour hundred and sixty, Session Law, of 
eighteen hundred aud forty-seven ; chapter four hundred and seventeen, Laws of eighteen 
hundred aud sixty-two ; chapter tour hundred and fifteen, Laws of eighteen hundred and sixty- 
three, and in any other laws of this State, shall be applied as directed by the said Superintend- 
ent of Priouns in carrying out the provisions of this section. 

$ 5. The warden or superintendent of each State prison, penitentiary and reformatory, and 
the sheriff of each county, shall furnish to the said agent, upon the first of each month," a full 
list of all the convicts who will be discharged from the custody of the said institutions, respect- 
ively under their charge during the next succeeding month,"with such statements as shall be 
prescribed in the forms furnished under the direction of the Superintendent of State Prisons by 
the said agent concerning each convict to be discharged. 

§ 6. The said agent shall, on or before the fifteenth day of Januarv in each vear, make to the 
Superintendent of State Prisons a detailed statement in full of his orticial acts for the year end- 
ing the thirty-first day of December next last preceding, and the chief practical results of the 
same, so far as verified by him, and the Superintendent of Prisons shall transmit the same as a 
part of his annual report to the Legislature of the State. 

§ 7. The salary of the said agent shall be two thousand five hundred dollars per annum, to be 
paid quarterly by the Treasurer, upon the warrant of the Comptroller ; provided that such 
salary for the year first ensuing after the appointment of said agent, shall be paid from the sum 
heretofore appropriated "for maintaining the svstem of guidance, employment and aid of dis- 
charged prisoners " for the present vear. 

§ S. This act shall take effect immediately. 

(Chapter 421, Laws of 1877.) 



6 [Assembly 

in the history of a great many habitual offenders and apparently per- 
sistent criminals that their incompetence, feebleness, fickleness, and un- 
trained hands render them unavailable for useful employments. For 
this reason especially, the steady and well-regulated industries of the 
prisons tend directly to diminish such disabilities in the younger class 
of convicts, and, in a certain sense, to prepare them for useful and self- 
reliant employment when released from imprisonment. 

It is creditable to the numerous employers who steadily support this 
plan of assistance to worthy convicts, that they do not remit their efforts 
in behalf of such men. It is safe to say that the labor market is never 
closed against any competent and well-disposed ex-convict workman, 
but, that against habitual criminals and the idlers who attempt to live 
by their misapplied wits and devices or by impostures upon charity, all 
good people and all honest workmen raise some objections. The methods 
adopted by this agency and its friends throughout the State are recog- 
nized as being just and hororable in regard to the employers and the 
ranks of virtuous laborers, as well as in regard to ex-convicts who go 
into useful employments. Seven years of experience and inquiry con- 
cerning this matter, in the State of New York, warrant this conclusion. 
A few facts in this experience will sufficiently illustrate this matter : 

Seven years ago a large employer of skilled labor admitted to his 
shops several well-disposed workmen directly from one of the prisons of 
this State, and became their adviser as well as faithful and generous 
employer. He has continued to be the best of friends to reformed crim- 
inals, and has been able to protect all whom he has employed in such 
manner as to save them from dishonor among workmen and from relaps- 
ing into crime. He recently assured the State Agent that he not yet 
had occasion to regret his admitting to his shops any man thus sent 
to him. Yet, in this instance, every workman who has been sent to 
him had been regarded as wantonly criminal ; but, fortunately, each one 
had acquired practical skill in a useful trade industry in the prison. 
Every one also complied faithfully with the rules of the employer. Those 
workmen had no other trade than the one taught them in prison. 

An extensive employer of heavy labor, skilled and unskilled, has for 
seven years given employment to numerous ex-convicts, who have been 
sent, one at a time, to him by direction of the writer or by advice of 
local committees, and he says he shall continue to encourage such men, 
though they are not usually as robust and enduring as he wishes for 
the heaviest work in his establishments. 

In a remote district the superintendents of three extensive lines of 
industry have repeatedly received the unfortunate and well-disposed 
men who have thus been sent to them, and, according to their generous 
promise, continue to give any kind of employment they can to men so 
commended to them. 

Two other employers of heavy but well-organized labor in a remote 
district, far from cities, have successfully employed and aided the 
reformation of vigorous young men who have been sent to them directly 
from prison. 

In numerous instances the recently released convict, who, with some 
skill in a particular trade, has made his own application to a former 
employer, or to -one to whom he has been introduced by the agency or a 
local friend — with the outfit of tools given on departure — has resumed a 
hopeful career of honest industry. In an instance where the man was 
allowed to select the best tools, with the advice of a local friend of the 



No. 43.] 7 

agency, the day he left prison, a skilled workman, but an habitual and 
very dangerous criminal who could not be justly recommended, went to 
a distant city, and, after vascillating and shifting about for a few 
weeks, went to work in earnest with tools and skill that won place and 
remuneration which have for the past eight months relieved him from 
the surveillance of the police, and inspired in him a manly self-respect. 
Another dangerous " habitual," but young and robust, accepted a kit of 
tools, selected by his own hand, and with a friendly word from a busi- 
ness man of a local committee, entered on steady service in a common 
trade he had learned of his father, and has now spent the first year of 
constant labor and good behavior in his life. He remains true to his 
new friend and his employer. » 

One employer has secured work for upwards of ten convicts, imme- 
diately on their release from prison ; another has temporarily employed 
a still larger number ; four of the prison contractors have given employ- 
ment to discharged convicts, when feasible, in their free-labor shops, 
and, at the present time, there is not a county in the State in which 
some friendly and judicious employers do not offer to employ, or 
to advise and assist in procuring employment to any practicable extent, 
in such cases as are reasonably competent and worthy, on release from 
prison. 

The Number to be Assisted. — In the duty thus undertaken by the State, 
the first question has been : How many will endeavor to avoid crime, 
and to live by useful industry ? Among convicts of this class, a certain 
number have good homes or useful friends, to which they can best go 
immediately. But it is only a small proportion of the total number in 
prison that still claim these providential helps for their wordly welfare. 
If found to be available, the agency has used these helps to the greatest 
extent possible, not hesitating to supplement the necessary transporta- 
tion costs, and to give attention to the restoration of missing links in the 
chains of family obligation and friendly duty. The actual numbers who 
may need, and justly be assisted, on their release from prison, can be 
ascertained only by careful and trustworthy conference with the out- 
going prisoners. The act creating the agency provides that its execu- 
tive officer shall, " at least once in each month, visit each of the State 
prisons, to confer with all convicts whose term of imprisonment is soon 
to expire." In pursuance of this duty, the agent has continued to visit 
each prison, and at each monthly sitting for this purpose, the wardens, 
chaplains and medical officers in the prisons, have greatly facilitated 
the agent's task, by giving attention to the necessities of particular indi- 
viduals, and adding important information when desired. * But the 
number to be assisted or guided, on going out of prison, has depended 
on facts clearly ascertained by the agent, and such aid has related to 
the practical effect it would probably have upon the welfare of the indi- 
vidual and society. The question of actual moral reformation of the 
individual who needs, and will be morally benefited by the agent 
" inducing him to proceed immediately to suitable houses or employ- 
ment," is not allowed to hinder the act by which the needy and well- 
disposed can best be aided in the effort to pursue a peaceful and honest 
career. It probably is true that the number aided in going to such 
homes and employments has exceeded the total number of the actually 
reformed and truly virtuous. Fortunately there are some individuals 
among those who have been repeatedly in prison who will cease from 
crime when restored to the saving influences of home and useful employ- 



8 [Assembly, 

merit, and some also have been reached by the redeeming influences of 
religion, and a new sense of personal obligations, after receiving counsel 
and some necessary assistance. Thus far it has been true that all pecu- 
niary and other material aid has been designed to enable and induce 
the recipient to resume an honorable and self-supporting course of life. 

The Number Visited in Prison and the Number Assisted.-— In the twelve 
months ending October 1st, the agent personally examined and con- 
ferred with one thousand and sixty-eight (1,068) convicts in the State 
prisons. In the last three months of the year 1878 there were 236 thus 
conferred with. In all these cases the interview was held within six 
weeks of the expected day of the prisoner's release. 

The total number of convicts who received assistance in some sub- 
stantial form by this agency, during the fiscal year ending the first of 
October, was five hundred and fifteen (515). This comprises some State 
prisoners who were released shortly before the beginning of that period, 
and, in all excepting five cases (disabled convicts sent to hospitals), the 
aid and assistance given had specific reference to the speediest and most 
suitable employment and social protection of the individuals. 

The number aided during the last quarter of the year 1878 was 171, 
or more — the returns from three of the stations where aid is given by 
the agency, not being yet revised. The suspension of various industries 
and retrenchment in all, have driven numerous worthy ex-convicts to 
apply for guidance and temporary assistance after they had struggled 
along through the summer months by dint of their own ability. This class 
of applicants is readily distinguished from the itinerant and vagabond 
herd of tramps, as well as from imposters and drones who recite to the 
charitable the story of their woes and shame, while demanding that 
society shall provide for their wants. Fortunately the lists of convicts 
released from prisons and penitentiaries, as provided under the fifth 
section of the act creating this agency, make the detection of fraudulent 
applicants easy. Persons of this class, and other wanton criminals who 
insist upon living without labor, are the only ones who publicly com- 
plain of the want of charity and favor from the people and this agency. 
Many of there persons are nomadic criminals, who lead the herds of 
tramps from city to city, and through the wealthy districts of the State. 
All experience shows that it is best to decide upon all questions relating 
to destination, employment and aid for needy convicts, some time pre- 
vious to their release from prison, and, after that, to keep this agency 
sufficiently accessible to any ex-convict to enable him by letter, or 
through some local committee-man, to seek whatever advice and favor he 
should receive. This view of the duty to released prisoners led to the 
adoption of the plan of organization here described, and for which the 
law of 1877 provides. 

Stations at which Aid is Given. — At each State prison, and at Albany, 
Elmira and New York, a small fund is deposited, and a representative 
acts in the name of the agent for discharged prisoners. That fund pro- 
vides for any promise or exigency that awaits the release of individual 
prisoners. In certain instances a county committee-man has received 
and applied funds to meet some conditional engagement of the agent to 
a promising convict. If ever it should be desirable, it will be found 
entirely practicable to use the discreet help of individual members of 
local committees to extend the aid as well as friendly counsel, in which 
they can represent this duty to reformed and needy men. But,- in any 
event, the prudent, ready good-will of such local friends is more important 



No. 43.] 9 

than funds, and it is the best substitute for money. The six stations 
before mentioned, as established in October, 1877, with your approval, 
will be maintained, and it is desirable that the practice now established 
at each prison, to have the disbursements and last acts of the agency 
to benefit the convict on release, attended to by some one most suitable 
officer of the prison, thereby securing all needed discrimination in deal- 
ing with individuals, and at the same time avoiding any act that tends 
to inculcate a habit of dependence and beggary in the ex-convict. 

Employments. — The agency records show to what extent the men 
who received assistance laid any claim to being skilled workmen. 
Really expert tradesmen in any useful art. even if it be shoemaking or 
iron moulding, can usually find employment very soon after release from 
prison. The improved supervision of prison industries, and especially 
the improvement in discipline and diligence in the prison work-shops 
will now enhance the market demand for workmen who have been 
trained in the prisons. 

Under the circumstances in which w T e have thus far found the released 
men who needed assistance, the majority of them have not been adapted 
to city life and business, and, although but few have been ranked as 
competent farm laborers, agriculture and other rural occupations have 
been among the most available and permanently advantageous vocations 
to which this agency has sent men and youth from the prisons. Work- 
ers in iron — the forgers and hammerers, the lathe-workers and finishers, 
the moulders and machinists, are most readily secured in free labor ; 
while shoemakers, laundrymen, hatters, and harness and its hardware 
makers are less readily placed at the employments they learned in prison. 

As might naturally been expected, the trades or occupations which 
were well mastered while in early youth, before criminal acts were com- 
menced, remains the most available vocations for such discharged pris- 
oners as were proficient in them.* But it is the leading fact in the 
history of crime that the offending classes are rarely proficient in any 
useful trade or occupation before beginning their criminal career. Fickle, 
restive or indifferent in any employments of their youth, the traits of 
their boyhood become the occasions that precipitate them into crimes. 
Hence, the great importance of well-acquired trades and diligent habits 
in prison becomes obvious, and this is a necessity so urgent that uo 
argument or plea against the teaching of useful common trades in prisons 
should ever prevail. The manual occupations that induce greatest dili- 
gence and attention, and give best discipline to muscles and brain, con- 
duce directly to welfare of the convict laborer when he shall be re- 
leased, and whether he ever in free life pursues the prison trade or not. 
We have not found an individual ex-convict who had become expert in 
any prison trade who could not be quite speedily placed in good em- 
ployment at the same or some other occupation in free labor. The habits 

*Tho fact should here be stated that it rarely occurs that a convict who is master of a good 
trade before his conviction will ever return to prison ; also, that, with few exceptions, dis- 
charged convicts who had good practical experience in any useful occupation before their 
imprisonment, prefer to return to such employments rather than to pursue any trades they may 
have learned in prison. This fact lias been abundantly illustrated in our observations the past ten 
years, and it is confirmed as one of great practical importance in Great Britain. It is especially 
important as respects the lesson it teaches as concerning the value of any well-acquired trade 
or common branch of labor by individuals. in any station in life, and it also teaches us how little 
is to be feared from any tendency of the enforced instruction in prison trades to supplant or 
overcrowd the ranks of hone.-t trades-workers. This State Agency will be prepared to give 
most important testimony on this subject alter two or three years Sir "Walter Croft on and 
others have observed that "discharged prisoners succeed best in the employments they best pur- 
Sued before they committed crime. 



10 [Assembly, 

and skill so acquired in prison constitute an industrial and personal capi- 
tal independent of the mere trade skill which the convict has learned as 
a prisoner. 

All experience in dealing with the criminal classes goes to prove how 
vitally important it is that every individual should be taught and well 
trained in some useful occupation by which he may earn his subsistence 
through life. Even the children of affluence should not be left to 
depend exclusively upon mere learning or wealth. Several of the most 
helpless persons we have seen leaving our State prisons are young men 
who have wrecked both character and fortune, whib utterly destitute of 
any adequate industrial or skilled capacity by which to earn an honest 
living. Good manners and graceful accomplishments will not win 
honest bread for them. They have no value in the labor market, hence 
they become too often mere helps in sinking their possessor down to the 
ranks of the habitual contrivers and leaders of crime. The best help 
which the State gives such youth, when all family friends and fortune 
have forsaken them, is a good trade and the effectual discipline of dili- 
gent and skillful industry. Such men not unfrequently become con- 
vinced of this fact, and have succeeded in becoming expert workmen 
and superintendents of branches- of industries in which they have 
become expert. And we can quote, as a recent illustration, a young 
felon convict, who graduated from a college, an office under the 
government, and, as a criminal, utterly abandoned by family and 
friends, was imprisoned four years and compelled to learn a common 
trade. On leaving prison every resource failed him, but to that he 
applied himself, and after the first month, and now for more than a 
year, he has been an expert foreman of one of the most important 
branches in manufacture ; and the reckless criminal has become a 
thoughtful and religious man, earning a good salary, and constantly 
engaged in good works for the welfare of others. His reputation and 
security with his employers are equivalent to a fortune. 

Previous to the great depression and retrenchment in trade industries, 
nearly 300 employers of organized labor, who steadily work upwards of 
30,000 men, were personally known to the agent as willing and avail- 
able helpers of this agency. In prosperous times it would be entirely 
practicable for every well-disposed convict who has acquired skill in a 
useful trade, or who has the habit of diligence and faithfulness in duty, 
added to sound health, on leaving prison, to be steadily employed in 
some branch of honest industry in his free life. It is not true, and proba- 
bly never will be, that the best employers of labor in the State of 
New York or elsewhere in our country will refuse employment to good 
and honest workmen because they have served in prison. But there is 
a manifest necessity for prudently distributing and befriending this 
class of laborers ; and among 500 employers who can be found within 
the limits of the State ready and willing each to employ one or two 
such men every year, with more than 40,000 other workmen with whom 
such persons would be employed no interest of virtuous workmen or 
of society at large would suffer harm. For it must be remembered that 
no wantonly vicious or habitual criminal is recommended to an 
employer, though such men are duly informed where they can find 
suitable work. 

Results. 
In such duties as this agency has undertaken, visible results will not 
be the earliest* and, perhaps* not the chief benefits which the public 



No. 43.] 11 

should expect from this service. Certainly it is impossible to know how- 
many, even of those who promise to do well and actually go to work, 
will refrain from the vices and temptations which may lead to crime. 
We know that a few persons have relapsed into such vices, and that 
some have returned to prison after suitable homes and employments had 
been offered to them. 

Of the 1,304 convicts with whom the agent has conferred in the year 
1878, and of the 686 who received aid in the fifteen months ending De- 
cember 31, not a few still retain strong tendencies to a criminal career. 
Former observations and inquiry by us have indicated that fully sixty 
per cent of all felon convicts in our prisons have done crimes repeat- 
edly, and that more than half of the State prisoners who are released, 
have strong tendencies to relapse into offenses of the same nature as 
those which first consigned them to imprisonment. This remark relates 
to the past seven or eight years of observation and study of felon pris- 
oners, and it certainly will be fortunate, if after the improvement in dis- 
cipline and industrial training in the State prisons, it shall be ascer- 
tained that only thirty, forty, or even if only fifty per cent of the dis- 
charged prisoners relapse into crime. It is warrantable to predict even 
better results than this, after the existing stock of habitual criminals 
has passed away, for the old prison system and the jails of the State 
have produced a vast number of habituals who will continue in crime 
and vice until they die. 

The results thus far observed in the efforts to guide and assist dis- 
charged convicts, who have acquired diligent habits and the mastery of 
some useful occupation before leaving prison, warrants the conclusion 
that less than ten per cent of this class will relapse into vicious and 
criminal courses ; and were all the known habitual and occasionally 
recurrent offenders excluded from the lists of those who receive such 
assistance, it is believed that not more than five per cent would soon re- 
lapse into the evil ways which before consigned them to prison. 

Thus far there has been scarcely an exception to the rule that the re- 
lapses into crime among the whole number assisted, have occurred in 
the persons known as habitual offenders, and who were assisted and 
advised because young and competent to do well. Yet even of this un- 
fortunate and misguided class, the number who cease to do evil and 
learn to do well doubly repays the care and expenditure bestowed upon 
them. The test of the ability and sincerity of young ex-convicts of 
this class is given in the opportunity to labor in the occupations in which 
they are most proficient. Two cases that have occurred in this class of 
graduates from one of the prisons illustrate the duty of this agency, 
and the diverse results of its impartial efforts to save some of the young- 
est of the proficient criminals. 

Case 1. — A youth of twenty years, but one term in prison, though a 
criminal from his twelfth year, received a workman's suit of clothing, 
costing less than five dollars, and w^ent into active employment, was 
kindly befriended, encouraged and instructed by successive employers. 
He did well, and his behavior was promising. But former associates in 
crime enticed him, his love of leadership and its prowess overmatched 
his feeble moral resistance, and he recently wrote to the most generous 
of his employers : "I expect to die with the implements of the burglar 
in my hands." He is now a nomadic burglar* 

Case 2. — A boy of nineteen year 4 *, from the same prison as the above- 
mentioned case, and a more artful and successful criminal than lie, 



12 [Assembly, 

promised faithful compliance with the advice given by the agent and 
the employer, and he has even exceeded all that he promised, and 
though an utterly friendless orphan, from his tenth year, his diligence 
and integrity now command for him, both friendship and wages, which 
youth of noble birth might enjoy. He was taught to be expert 
in crime as a vocation, and was constrained by the threats of exposure, 
by his criminal comrades, to take the greatest hazard in their raids. 
He received the same kind of aid, and had an equally good employer, 
as the case first mentioned ; but he has received lower wages and far 
less favors than the other. Yet no one, who is acquainted with his con- 
dition, can doubt his reformation. 

Both these youths were of low birthright. The latter believes his 
parents were virtuous, and kept a well-ordered house before he was 
left an orphan ; the former lad recollects only a vicious father and a 
stormy home. The diverse results of the help given to these two 
persons occur from causes beyond human control, but they were antici- 
pated from the obvious peculiarities of their natural endowments and 
tendencies. The prevention of criminal acts in either of them was 
doubtless entirely possible, had they been properly trained from the 
age of ten years; but the boy with vicious heritage had little chance 
of escaping a deplorable fate, unless saved in childhood by special 
training. 

While only a few, even of young habitual criminals, are saved from 
relapsing into their former course, the friendly aid and kindness given 
by this agency to the penitent, the reformed, and all others who strive 
to do well, are never wasted. 

The Results in the Prison Population. — The maintenance of hopes and 
the reparation of plans for returning to the useful and peaceful ranks 
of society, when released, is one of the results sought, and, in some 
degree, already attained by this agency at the prisons. Though this 
result might be vastly increased, if all keepers suitably encouraged the 
prisoners in this respect, the agent is happy to bear testimony to the great 
value of the efforts of the prison officers, who have endeavored to con- 
tribute to this desirable result. Certainly the inscription of despair 
which Dante read upon the portals of the world of woe has long been 
removed from our prisons. In place of despair and the words of aban- 
donment, the words of hope are repeated in each prison. 

There is one effect already noticeable from the influence of personal 
conference with prisoners about to be released. They are earnestly 
aroused to a consciousness of the besetting evils and vices by which 
crimes are induced, and are made fully aware of the fact that no assist- 
ance can be justified unless there is a studious avoidance of the causes of 
crime. The agent feels deeply impressed with thankfulness to the war- 
dens, chaplains and medical officers, for all the good influence they are 
exerting upon young prisoners in regard to this matter. 

Results of the Agency s Work in the Communities. — During the past year 
the agent visited twenty-nine counties, in pursuance of the duty of 
maintaining the local methods of assistance to worthy men returning 
from prison. The best employers of labor, and the active members of 
local committees throughout the State, have thus been consulted person- 
ally or by letter, and their friendly interest renewed in the duties of the 
agency. This interest has become a trustworthy source of public opin- 
ion and influence in favor of a sound penal syotem. The united energies 
that were put forth to secure the reform of the State prison government, 



No. 43.] 13 

by amending the Constitution of the State, having been successful, are 
now available and in use for the reform of the common jails as crime 
nurseries, and for the help of the local service of this agency. 

What is Found to be Practicable and what Impracticable. — Industry and 
temperance are indispensable conditions for the attainment of any per- 
manently good results from favors shown to those who have again and 
again relapsed into crime. But to those of that class who are yet young 
and have acquired habits of diligence and useful labor, it is necessary 
to offer the aid which will secure them employment and reasonable 
moral protection ; and, as we have before stated, the common labor test 
speedily determines the fitness of the individual for any assistance. 
As this class of convicts, who have repeatedly done crime, is by no means 
composed wholly of habitual offenders, but consists largely of persons 
wmose offenses are associated exclusively with inebriety — occasional or 
frequent — or whose associates have led them into evil repeatedly, there 
are many among them who are able, with timely aid, to cease to do evil, 
and to do well. The number of persons of this class who can be saved 
by the help of good employers in the most common industries, as well 
as in skilled labor in cases of special fitness for it, is vastly larger than 
most people believe. Obedience and faithfulness on the part of the 
favored employee, and a friendly supervision of the employer, are essen- 
tial conditions in building up a reformed character in such individuals. 
As this class of convicts constitutes fully fifty per cent of all who are 
found in prison, they are the first mentioned in this connection. It is 
practicable to save many of these at the moderate cost of inducing them 
to enter upon steady industry under suitable employers. It is also 
practicable to induce family friends of some of these to receive and 
encourage them in such manner as to rescue them from evil and save 
them from farther crime. It is impracticable to rectify such lives unless 
they accept these essential means of reformation. 

Secondly. It is practicable, even in the present period of retrench- 
ment in manufactures, for almost any well-disposed and really expert 
trade workman to obtain employment ; and such expertness, united with 
good habits, ever affords the greatest certainty for employment and the 
maintenance of a well-ordered and self-reliant career. It is practicable 
to give assurance of this to every expert workman in useful trades. 
But it is impracticable to give any such assurance to persons who wish 
to live in crime or lead a life of self-indulgence and evil associations. 
It is practicable to guide any strong and healthy man, of temperate and 
industrious habits, to some kind of common labor, if he has an earnest 
purpose to earn his subsistence by such labor. It is impracticable to 
expect to benefit released convicts of this grade who are not willing to 
win honest bread. The unwillingness and caprice which the great class 
of habitual criminals evince when urged to undertake such labor for 
their own self-support, shows what moral disorder has infected them. 
It is impracticable to attempt to protect society against those depreda- 
tions which such men plot, both in prison and out, except by continually 
enforced hard labor and moral discipline. For this reason, if for no 
other, the " Habitual Criminals' Act " needs to be effectually revised and 
enforced in the State of New York, and, if possible, the repeated penal 
sentences of such men should be made cumulative. It is impracticable 
to ameliorate or reform such wanton criminals by means of proffered 
favors and employment. Though these are the only men who complain 
that the State does not provide them employment, we have never known 



G 



14 [Assembly, 

an instance in which one of them has continued to work many days 
after obtaining a good situation. They constitute a dangerous class, 
and in many of the county jails the writer has found conspicuous mem- 
bers of this class whom he had seen previously in prison in the past 
few years, for felonies, but now, as itinerant offenders, undergoing a jail 
sentence with common tramps and others. 

Results Indicating Suitable Methods for the Duties of the Agency. — -Fif- 
teen months' of intercourse with the new officials of the prisons has 
enabled them as well as the agent to see what can be done advantage- 
ously. The prisoners also have become in some measure informed of 
the relation which the State has, by this agency, established between 
the prison and the life of restored liberty that awaits most of them. 
Each of the prison wardens has given to the State Agent all desired 
facilities for the duties he performs at the prison. Hence it has not 
been necessary to secure in the locality of any prison the immediate 
co-operation of any special assistant to look after the interests of dis- 
charged convicts. One of the conditions of assistance for men depends 
upon their departure from the immediate vicinity of the prison as soon 
as released. Each one is treated upon the principle that no virtuous or 
well-disposed man can safely w r aste any time or willingly remain unem- 
ployed. Extra transportation and funds for subsistence are supplied by 
the agency to those needy persons only who undertake to forsake evil 
associations, if such dangers await them. The departure from prison 
and the last words to the prisoner at its doors have become matters of 
importance, and, by your approval, each of the wardens will undoubtedly 
direct that this duty to prisoners on their release shall be made as bene- 
ficial as possible in giving full effect to the objects of this agency. The 
frailties of the greater portion of the persons who are released from 
prison, the infamous array of dram-shops near the outer gate of each 
prison, and the voices of vicious tempters in every prison town are every 
week in the year wrecking the resolutions, hopes and feebly-begun life 
of virtue and good purposes of young convicts as they go out of prison. 
It certainly would appear that if the statutes justly inflict heavy penal- 
ties for giving or selling intoxicating liquors to an Indian, there must be 
vastly more reason and necessity for crazing the brain of a released 
convict the day he emerges from prison. 

It is not practicable in the United States to restrain the released 
felons from returning or conspiring to return to the great cities. Such 
restraint has been enforced with some success in France and elsewhere 
in Europe. But by whatever method, and to whatever extent the State 
and the local committees of the Prison Association may offer friendly 
help to needy convicts at the time of release, there should be a suitable 
regard for this duty of preventing the congregation of released and 
homeless ex-convicts in cities. This view of the matter led to the 
effort made by the writer, in 1872, by approval of the Prison Associa- 
tion of this State, to transfer the principal efforts for the benefit of 
released convicts directly to the prisons themselves. This voluntary 
service and improved method have become the State system. The 
agent, as a recognized friend of sound reformatory discipline, has every 
reason to expect and to receive whatever assistance and support the 
wardens and other competent officers in the prisons can give. By your 
official approval, each warden has suitably provided that every convict 
with whom the agent wishes to confer before his release, shall have this 
privilege in the privacy of the apartment assigned for this purpose. In 



No. 43.] 15 

such interviews with the agent, after any necessary communication with 
employers or family friends, each needy and well-disposed prisoner has 
the opportunity to determine Upon his future residence and occupation. 
This is the key to the agency's influence upon the prisoner's future 
welfare, and the maintenance of organized and somewhat personal as 
well as official relations with the local committees of the Prison Associa- 
tion — now comprising upwards of 300 excellent and influential citizens — 
together with similar relations with upwards of 300 employers in our 
State, affords the basis for undertaking this service. While it may not 
be desirable or convenient to maintain paid assistants to the agency at the 
prison towns, this system of duty is so arranged for each prison as to 
render it necessary that the respective wardens shall conveniently, with 
your approval, place in constant personal relations with the State Agent, 
some one subordinate officer, who, with special experience and tact shall 
carry out the few essential provisions as arranged by the agent, to secure 
the outfitting, transportation and welfare of those for whom the agency 
is mest concerned. This duty has great importance. It has thus far 
been assigned at Auburn, by the warden's kindness, to a vigilant hall- 
keeper, while at Sing Sing and Dannemora, it has been shared by the 
warden, the physician and chaplain. Henceforth, by your approval, 
the respective wardens will, doubtless, prefer to designate for »this 
delicate duty some one, as at the Auburn prison, who not only is never 
absent at the hour of releasing prisoners, but who willingly becomes 
interested in the convict's immediate necessities and future welfare. It is 
hardly necessary for the agent to say that such kind and timely official 
help in his field of service is necessary to the best results, while without 
it no one agent could organize the means and also ascertain the wants 
and destination of the prisoners to be aided. 

The frailties of the greater portion of the individuals who need 
guidance or aid on their release from prison, the vital importance of the 
first movements towards the right or the wrong by tempted young con- 
victs as they emerge from the prison, the infamous array of dram-shops 
near the outer gates of all our prisons, and the allurements of vicious 
temptations in every prison town, are circumstances that have to be 
understood by the persons who propose to render any successful aid in 
guiding the morally infirm men and youth who are daily departing 
from the prisons. The State Agent can see and sufficiently know every 
convict, visiting as he does, monthly, each prison " to confer with all con- 
victs whose term of imprisonment is soon to expire ;" but there are duties 
toward the individual prisoners in the closing period, and at the last 
moment of the term, which we shall not invoke in vain. 

Railway companies are now accepting ticket-orders for through pas- 
sages of any extent, thereby enabling the agency to supply, at each 
prison town, a through ticket, if desirable, instead of cash in unsafe 
pockets. The wardens have also undertaken a judicious use of funds in 
the winter, to supplement the necessary woolen clothing in particular 
cases. The prison physicians have greatly aided the settlement of 
various questions relating to the bodily welfare of feeble prisoners, and 
chaplains have given useful attention to special wants of cases which 
concern them. But the most important knowledge of the wants and 
capabilities of each man, in any prison discharge list, is obtained by 
conferring with him, intregard to wants and perils to be avoided, 
for with correct knowledge of the individuals, it becomes possible 
to give judicious direction to employments, places and the helps they 



16 [Assembly, 

should seek. All such necessary knowledge of those who ought to 
receive guidance and assistance is best obtained before they are released. 
Pastor Robin, at the head of the system of Aid for Discharged Prison- 
ers, in Paris, recently said: "Parisians contend that 'patronage' 
(friendly assistance), should begin its influence when a man is under 
confinement ; for they hold that it is extremely difficult to exercise their 
influence to benefit a man effectually when he has been released from 
prison before they became acquainted with him personally ;" and, for 
himself, that veteran philanthropist says he " could not accept the task 
of aiding such men whom he had not known, and whom he saw for the 
first time." Attempting to assist only those whom they have so begun 
to influence by personal interviews before release, M. Robin remarks, 
that the assistance is continued until those who receive it completely 
regain their position in society ; and that not more than five per cent of 
such discharged prisoners relapse into crime. This is a significant result. 

The New York State Agency Compared with the Method of Aid 
for Discharged Prisoners in other Countries. 
In England, Ireland, and France, this duty has received much atten- 
tion. The late General Pilsbury, on his return from Europe in 1872, 
justly said: "Our own country has much to do before it will even 
approach England, in what must be regarded as the essential comple- 
ment of any and all good prison systems. We have but four really 
efficient organizations of this kind : The Prison Association of New York, 
The Philadelphia Prison Society, The California Prison Commission, 
and The Maryland Prisoners Aid Society." The Prison Association of 
New York has, of its own choice, sought the transfer of its purely volun- 
tary methods of assistance to discharged State prisoners, directly to the 
State Agency, in order to increase the efficiency and value of such aid. 
In no other American State, excepting in Massachusetts and Maryland, 
has anything of this kind been attempted. But in England and in 
Ireland the methods by which the State concerns itself, for the encour- 
agement of convicts who promise reform, has - assumed several different 
forms. The method adopted in Ireland, as you well know, was based 
upon the Crofton system, by which convicts are disciplined and released, 
upon a graduation scheme of preparation, for a life of self-support and 
honorable liberty. One great element in the success of that system, is 
commonly supposed to have depended upon the encouragement given 
by the special agent and moral instructor, the late Mr. Organ, who 
snowed that even the worst lives could be amended so as to begin anew, 
either in America or Australia. Though this hope of migration has had 
great value in the Irish system, the merits of the system itself are 
entirely independent of this, it must be said that the American States 
have received much more of evil than of good from those who migrate 
from foreign prisons. The Irish system of supervision and friendly 
concern, for the protection and welfare of released prisoners, produces 
beneficial results not yet exceeded in many countries, and, if we are 
correctly informed, a less proportion of the Irish ex-convicts relapse 
into crime in Great Britain than in that number which migrates to 
America.* 

* Sir Walter Crofton has never favored the emigration or any method of deportation of 
released convicts. He says that he believes those who remain in their own country, as a general 
rule, do best and are less liable to relapse than those wh <7 migrate. This rule holds true in 
France, Germany, and Italy. The deportation of discharged prisoners is no longer regarded 
as a wise or justifiable measure. No enlightened citizen in any country now favors such a 
policy, except in the few cases in which ex-convicts are restored to their family and best friends 
by emigration. 



No. 43.] 17 

England has nearly forty local organizations known as Prison Aid Socie- 
ties ; but, of these, only a few of them give special attention to felon 
prisoners. The principal one of the latter class affords some aid to 
about 500 discharged convicts annually. Whatever the government gives 
(a considerable sum to both classes of these associations, and by virtue of. 
a statute), it is provided that the felon convict discharged from the second 
imprisonment is placed under the supervision of the police wherever in 
the kingdom he may be, for a considerable period, but not to exceed 
seven years. That supervision is becoming so thoroughly friendly and 
practical that nearly all reformed convicts actually desire it as a means 
of real protection and help. The English law also provides that, from ten 
to fifteen dollars may be placed at the command of the released convict 
through the hands of the aid society which acts as the government agency 
in whatever place the person so aided shall reside. Such sums are not 
placed directly in the hands of the beneficiary, but are bestowed ac- 
cording to merit and need through the appointed agency. 

In France the aid to prisoners on their release is carefully provided 
for and suitably agreed upon while the convict is still in prison. The 
French system is one of friendly guidance and counsel, and the pro- 
vision for employment, clothing, and friendship, wherever the reformed 
convict may go within the limits of France. The leading aid societies 
in France now recommend that the government itself should organize, 
and in some degree direct the functions of assistance (patronage) for 
discharged convicts. 

In several other of the European States the prison system itself pro- 
vides aid to worthy prisoners by means of a credit or reserve (peculam) 
of small percentages of the prisoner's earnings, which shall be given as 
he directs, or be paid to him under regulations when he is discharged. 
This method is beneficient and most useful to convicts' families, and it 
is susceptible of useful application in all countries. It is an important 
key to the marvelous success of Count Sollahub's scheme of the Correc- 
tional prison at Moscow. It has a powerful moral influence, whenever it 
is wisely administered, as an element of the penal system. 

The Public and Social- Aspects op this Care by the State and by 
Citizens for the Welfare op Criminals. 
From the inception of its State-prison system, as begun at Auburn 
sixty years ago, New York has endeavored to bring into each prison 
such reformatory influences as the organized industries, rewards for dili- 
gence and good conduct, instruction of the ignorant, and the services 
of chaplains and physicians may exert in a penitentiary system. The 
selection of Auburn as the site for the first prison beyond the metrop- 
olis, had reference to the repression of crime in a more effectual man- 
ner than had been found possible in the chief city. As early as 1827-28, 
the noble-minded warden and early commissioner of that prison — Judge 
Gershom Powers — announced, as a result of his patient efforts to guide 
all well-disposed convicts released from the Auburn prison, he had found 
that out of some 500 of the total cases discharged in six or seven years, 
there were 160 from whom he continued to receive definite information, 
and 112 of whom sustained a good reputation, and 106 were reputed 
to be exemplary and faultless from the time of release until the latest 
dates. That was a study and an official example worthy of notice ; for 
it is sound evidence that such official interest in the claims of humanity 
and public economy is far from being in vain. 
[Assem. Doc. No. 43. 2 



18 [Assembly, No. 43.] 

Experience has warranted these efforts to induce men, on leaving 
prison, to avoid the « auses of crime ; and it is an essential part of the 
design of this agency to aid the prisoner in his preparation of mind and 
means to this end. Does any citizen doubt the utility of such duties to 
friendless men, or question the value of prison improvement, let the words 
of Sir John Forbes be quoted, to show that " the failure of any scheme 
which allows the convict at once to issue from confinement into the 
hot-bed of former associations, without any counterbalancing impulse, 
can scarcely be surprising, even under favorable circumstances, consider- 
ing that the passions must be in a state of morbid activity. The man in 
such a state, launched without rudder or compass, and at once beset by 
the most alarming temptations, must inevitably give way and cast 
behind him the feeble barrier of good resolutions which he may have 
been induced to make in the time of repose and seclusion." 

No merely penal system, no special methods of prison management, 
whether humane or rigorous, will ever be competent wholly to remove 
the moral and the physical and social causes of crime, or of individual 
relapses into the enthrallment of evil companionships. But the people of 
New York are becoming conscious of the fact that their criminal con- 
victs are but part of their own progeny — the product of evils in the 
communities in which they have been nurtured. The questions, there- 
fore, of cause and cure, of prevention and reform, of penal necessities 
and moral forces or reformatory measures in regard to criminals, are 
home questions, which deserve attention from all good citizens ; and, 
when they are examined with reference to the public and personal duties 
we owe to offending and unfortunate fellow- beings, and with regard 
to the moral obligation to avert and repress the causes of crime, we find 
that a most satisfactory answer has been given by the honored founder 
of the Albany Penitentiary, who, in one of his practical reviews of this 
subject, said : " The best solution of this difficult problem is that which 
most effectually neutralizes in the bosom of society the evil influences 
which disturb it and put in peril the interests, the security, and the 
lives of its members." This problem and an enlightened view of public 
duty are now placed in a clear light in all portions of the State, under 
the revised administration of the prison system, into which the State 
Agency for Discharged Convicts was, by the law of 1877, admitted as 
an accessory to the beneficent ends of penitentiary treatment. 

Very respectfully submitted, 

ELISHA HARRIS, M. D., 

State Agent. 



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